Cheltenham Festival 2016: Victoria Pendleton triumphs on a day that could have gone terribly wrong

What a spectacle, Cheltenham rising to acclaim the Olympian as she hammered up the hill, making a victory of fifth

Victoria Pendleton on Pacha Du Polder finishes the 4.10 St. James's Place Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup (Reuters)

Sorry was the first word uttered by Victoria Pendleton on her return to the parade ring. Can you believe it? That’s the Olympian in Queen Vic. After finishing fifth on her debut at Cheltenham, just one year after mounting a horse for the first time, the double Olympic cycling champion’s emotion was not relief at defying the odds, but disappointment at missing out on fourth.

Neither was she happy about stuffing her whip beneath a strap securing the saddle to her mount Pacha Du Polder early in the race. “Don’t ask how it got there. I must have threaded it in, a novice mistake,” she said in the breathless post-race euphoria.

What a spectacle, the whole of Cheltenham rising to acclaim her as she hammered up the hill, making a victory of fifth. And to think the bookies had her odds-on to fail to make the trip.

Nobly, Pendleton insisted credit go to the winner of the Foxhunter Chase, Nina Carberry. This is the high point of the jump year for amateur jockeys and in victory aboard On The Fringe, Carberry was repeating her success of a year ago. But Carberry will also acknowledge the service to her sport Pendleton provided in what was one of the maddest, most remarkable debuts witnessed in this great racing crucible.

Pendleton was engaged in a different race. The chorus of cynicism melted away as she first charmed the audience with her poise, then stunned with her technical accomplishment and her management of the environment. Make no mistake, this was an afternoon that could have gone terribly wrong.

Brough Scott, the wily former jockey and pundit, was among those gathered in the enclosure afterwards. “What she has accomplished is remarkable. This is a bloody dangerous sport. She took a great risk, but she came through it brilliantly.”

Pendleton acknowledged the risks of bouncing around a field in the company of 23 other beasts each weighing half a ton: “I could have fallen off and we would be in a different situation asking very different questions.”

This was an afternoon to erase all negativity. I confess my sins in this regard. The argument against went something like this. Surely Cheltenham represents a pinnacle, a place where only the best practice, not a stage for the novelty feature.

The view was that Pendleton’s presence trivialised a tough gig, for that is what riding horses over fences for a living is. Imagine the furore had she tumbled into the same void as John Thomas McNamara, a paraplegic since falling here three years ago in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Chase.

Pendleton started cautiously, setting her mount at the back of the field, staying clear of trouble and building a rhythm. As the first circuit of a three-and-a-quarter-mile trip came to a close she shed any caution and began to motor.

There is no crowd as intuitive as the punters at Cheltenham, who picked up immediately the meaning of her quickening pace on the downhill approach to the final turn. Through the murk she roared, whip now in hand, chasing the leaders up the hill to the line. Cue rapture and talk of taking on the Grand National at Aintree next.

Commendably Pendleton stood back from that booby trap: “There would be more chance of me sprouting wings and starting flying. I just want to learn more about the craft without any pressure or expectation and just soak it all up.”